Thousands upon thousands of film students have great ideas for films. They soon find out a basic premise is not enough. They need a good script.
Someone forgot that with Gossip. They thought if they could emulate the style of Shallow Grave, and the intergroup tensions of Flatliners, they'd pull this one off. James Marsden and Lena Headey put in strong shifts as the leads. The film is stylishly shot. After that, you are struggling to say anything positive about this infantile non-event of a film.
The leads are supposed to be undergraduates, though they all look about 31 but talk like 12-year-olds. They are 'shocked' that a dating couple might have had sex. They drink hard but never touch drugs. They only seem to take one class, about 400 of them packed in one room (no empty seats?) where the professor (who wrote THIS guy's lines??) picks on them because... well, I never figured that one out. And the three flatmates who initiate proceedings just would not be friends in real life.
The ending is as bad as you have heard. You see it coming, but the only surprise is that you assume they will not go down this path, it is just too absurd, too against the flow, and so you writhe in shock and embarrassment when they 'reveal' their trick. And what exactly is Kate Hudson's supercilious smile at the end supposed to convey? "I was raped, but YOU are going to be gossiped about."
Some victory. This film is glib and thoughtless, and probably would be offensive if you could remember it five minutes after ejecting the DVD.
Someone forgot that with Gossip. They thought if they could emulate the style of Shallow Grave, and the intergroup tensions of Flatliners, they'd pull this one off. James Marsden and Lena Headey put in strong shifts as the leads. The film is stylishly shot. After that, you are struggling to say anything positive about this infantile non-event of a film.
The leads are supposed to be undergraduates, though they all look about 31 but talk like 12-year-olds. They are 'shocked' that a dating couple might have had sex. They drink hard but never touch drugs. They only seem to take one class, about 400 of them packed in one room (no empty seats?) where the professor (who wrote THIS guy's lines??) picks on them because... well, I never figured that one out. And the three flatmates who initiate proceedings just would not be friends in real life.
The ending is as bad as you have heard. You see it coming, but the only surprise is that you assume they will not go down this path, it is just too absurd, too against the flow, and so you writhe in shock and embarrassment when they 'reveal' their trick. And what exactly is Kate Hudson's supercilious smile at the end supposed to convey? "I was raped, but YOU are going to be gossiped about."
Some victory. This film is glib and thoughtless, and probably would be offensive if you could remember it five minutes after ejecting the DVD.